Healthy meals/snacks for road trip with 3 toddlers!

[maureen73]

We are traveling over 17 hours on vacation with our 4, 3 and 2 year old kiddos. We don't plan to eat along the way but will stop for rest periods and picnics. I want to put together a meal plan of healthy meals and snacks. We do have a large cooler to bring along but don't want things that will easily spoil. Ideas? Thanks.

[Precious Bunz]

Do you know how to make home made granola? This can be a great snack.
How about dried fruit? do you have a dehydrater and some time? If not a trip to your local health food store will yield you some great dehydrated apple and mango slices. This is also good for a teething little one.

What about cheese sticks? I'm not sure if you allow dairy. Some apples are good too and grapes. You'll have to keep them in the cooler but maybe you could bring a smaller cooler for snacks and fruit?

I give you alot of credit to be traveling with 3 little ones and not planning on stopping. You're a brave soul.

air-popped popcorn..although i'm not sure if that's a good idea for a 2 y/o

[maureen73]

Thanks mama,
We are going to stop about 10-12 hours into the journey and sleep in a hotel to break up the trip but don't want to do the restaurant thing on the drive. We did this drive last year and though it wasn't horrible I am still dreading it! I definately want to try to make homemade organic cereal bars...my kids love the children's luna bars and also posted here too asking how to make a toddler friendly granola. Thanks for the great ideas.

[jabmmt]

We travel a lot with our boys. I always pack cheese sticks, cheese cubes, grapes,apples, crackers, pretzel sticks, fruit snacks, yogurt or yogurt drinks, peanut butter/cheese crackers, juice boxes, puddings, jello cups etc. We usually stop by the store and grab lunch meats & cheese to make sandwiches along the way and our older boys like to pick some salads out from the deli (they each get their own container).

[Hands&Fire Pottery]

Do your kids like pasta salad- you could make one of those for the cooler... Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches if you aren't allergic- can just pack the PB and J and a loaf of bread... maybe some homemade pizza "lunchables" with pita bread and all the fixins... veggies and "dip"- ranch dressing from a small unopened salad dressing container... popcorn in a bag

[blossomgoat]

peanut butter cracker sandwiches are fun but make crumbs.

grapes
yogurt packets, like gogurt
you can get chicken jerky that is in chunks so easier to chew
trail mix with cheerios, raisins, pretzals, peanuts, etc.
yogurt raisins
dried fruit bits
sugar snap peas
z bars
pre-made quesadillas

[dkyle220]

We made a non-stop 23 hr trip road trip with three: 4,3, and 18 months...


We took fresh fruit, mama made trail mix (that way you can choose the ingredients), pretzels, string cheese sticks, whole grain nutrigrain bars, granola bars, peanut butter & cheese crackers, juice boxes and water to drink

We also packed and took stuff to make sandwiches (with chips & fruit) at the rest stops.

And yes, the van was a mess when we got home, but nothing that couldn't be easily cleaned. We only ate "perishable" items outside of the vehicle (so something didn't get dropped and stink up the place... we traveled to Phoenix)!

[maureen73]

Okay...one week and counting before take off so here is my tenative grocery list to pack for the drive:

1. homemade trail mix
2. homemade granola
3. roast turkey
4. fresh bread
5. pickles
6. bananas
7. fruit salad
8. cheese
9. lara bars for kids
10. peanut butter and jelly
11. chips
12. water and juice

Hmmm...am I missing anything?

P.S. Thank you for inspiring me with such great ideas!

[armywife2002]

we've been doing a lot of driving the past couple of weeks. i stick to dry snacks, since my 22 month old is alone in the backseat. i keep the snacks on the passenger seat so i can hand him stuff. this time we had granola bars (regular ones and cereal bars) annies bunny grahams, pretzels, dried fruit and gingers snaps i think. and i kept his 3 water bottles full so i could give him a new one when he finished or dropped one.

i bought a pack of these too, which work better than the other kind ive tried. he still got stuff all over the car (taking out what he didnt want at the time to get to what he did want on the bottom, lol) but it was way less of a mess than say giving him an open bowl or a baggie would have been

[starbuckmom]

These are great ideas! We are going to Alabama in Sept and will be gone for a week so any ideas for food in the car is great! I want to keep the stops at restaurants down to almost nothing. It will be cheaper if I have things in the car.